A quick tip

Cleaning my oven is not fun. If I would just do it after it has cooled my life would be so much easier. I got in a cleaning mood and finally scrubbed all the gunk and junk off my oven. I have a smooth surface oven and I discovered the best way to clean it. I thought I would pass along a helpful tip if you don't already have a great solution.

Here's my oven in all its glorious filth.

Sad! Horrible! My mother would be horrified! She raised me better than that!


This is my secret ingredient. What is it? Baking soda!! Cover the top of your oven with it and let it sit for a few minutes. I'm not sure how much it helps to let it sit but I tell myself by letting it sit, that's when the magic happens!! I usually let it soak in for about 5-10 minutes.

Then I take my sponge and start scrubbing. Depending on how much gunk you have on there you may have to really put some "elbow grease" into scrubbing. But it's worth the work in the end. I use the rough side of my sponge. It doesn't scratch my oven either.
After scrubbing just a little this is what the first burner looks like. A million times better!


Keep going because when you're finished you will be able to see your reflection. Ta da!!

What do you think? It looks brand new again. I do use window cleaner to polish the oven up to a pretty shine. This makes me happy! My total time spent cleaning this was about 20 minutes. Well worth it too!

Let's go to the beach {bathroom}

I started changing the kids bathroom back in April shortly after losing Taylor. I needed something to occupy my mind while I worked through all my emotions at the time. The kids bathroom really didn't have a rhyme or reason to it. It was plain and I never was really satisfied with it.

Then, my blog BFF (Not really. I only wish I could be cool enough to be like her!) Chris at Just a Girl did a coastal bathroom for her kids. I loved it! I must have it! I'm going to do this for my me kids.

We love the beach! I could live there the rest of my life and be happy. Sadly, here in Texas there isn't a beach that is super close. Since I can't go to the beach I'll bring it to our house.

So of course here are some before pictures. I apologize for the horrible pictures. There is no natural light in this bathroom.

And now for the after pictures. There are a lot of pictures. I'll include a resource list at the bottom of the post.

I painted the white cabinets black. You can see the cabinets so much better against the board and batten. I framed the mirror with door/window casing.

I spray painted the white cabinet on the wall black. The previous owners left that cabinet above the toilet. I've always hated it and wanted a different one. After pricing a new cabinet I figured a can of spray paint was a lot cheaper! $3 versus $80!! Hmmm....

I added the towel hooks instead of the one big towel bar. I like this so much better.

The rug is from World Market. I love the texture it brings in the bathroom.

This was a huge transformation as well. Matt laid tile down. I love it so much better than the ugly linoleum we had before.

The soap dispenser was an awesome deal from Target. The glass is blue and goes great with the color on the walls. The basket has shells that we have collected from our visits to various beaches.

I wanted a way to display some more of the shells from places we've been. I went to Hobby Lobby and found these great shadow boxes on clearance for $1.20 each. Are you kidding me?? Sold!! The big sand dollars are from my trip to Portland when I was 16 and the smaller ones are from California and Alabama.

Matt installed a recessed light to brighten up the room. Also, he put up crown molding.

One more look just for fun!

I love this bathroom! It might be hard to tell from the pictures but it is so much cooler in the room now. It has the touch of the beach that I wanted without going overboard.

I hope you love it as much as we do. Have an awesome weekend!

Resources:

Paint color is Olympic Baby's Breath from Lowes

Rug is from World Market $16.99. I had a birthday coupon and scored the rug for $6.99.

Soap dispenser is from Target $12.99. I used a coupon and got it for $2.99.

Trash can is from Target for $14.99. I used a coupon and got it for $4.99

Shower curtain is from Kohls. I purchased that years ago when we painted the room green. The shower curtain matches so much better now I think.
Tile is porcelain tile from Lowes. The color is Tuscan Bone. It was on clearance so I'm not sure how much would be left now.

If only....

I've always longed for a nice table setting. I would love to change out the table settings from season to season. But I don't have a dining room table since that room is the toy room. I would love for my kitchen table to have a nice setting to it. Nothing fancy even. Something simple like this would work.

I bought the placemats, lemons, glasses and plates at the Dollar Tree. Don't those lemons look so real?? Love that!! I love the blue, white, and yellow together. This is cute for summer!

There is no way I can have this even. Not with my two boys!

So this is what my table looks like for now. At least until my kids are older.

Not quite the same look or effect I was going for. Oh well....

Needing real estate advice

For anyone out there that knows anything about real estate this post is for you. We need some honest true advice. We've been working really hard to finish up all the projects around our house so that we can get it on the market. We would like to try to sell our house by ourselves first before listing with a realtor to maximize our profits. The profit from selling our current house would go as a down payment for our next house. My question lies with where to price our house and here's why....

Our next door neighbor just put his house for sale yesterday. His house is about 1800 sq feet, 3 bedroom and 2 bath. His yard is about the same size as ours (BIG!!), he has a deck and above ground pool. Also, he has a storage shed. On the flip side, he doesn't have any upgrades to the inside of his house. It's still builder basic with popcorn ceilings and all. He has white appliances and builder carpet. No upgrades inside!! I called the realtor to ask info about his house and she really played up the outside because there isn't anything great about the inside.

Now, our house is 3 bedroom and 2 bath with a formal dining room and is 1500 sq feet. We have a big yard with a flagstone patio. We've done upgrades to our house like new appliances, laminate flooring, new tile in the kitchen and bath, new light fixtures, nice paint colors, scraped the popcorn ceiling off, added crown molding throughout, new faucets, painted our kitchen cabinets a nice color and a brand new 30 year roof...just to name a few things we've done.

Where do we price our house compared to his? Do we price it just a little bit higher than his since our house has the upgrades? Do we price it the same as his or lower? What do you advise? Is it a bad thing to have 2 houses competing against each other that are right beside each other?

Any and all advice is needed! Leave me a comment or send me an email. Either way I want to hear what you think. This is our first time selling a house so we don't know what to expect. I'm not necessarily looking for specific numbers as to what we should actually list our house for but more so how to price it.

I appreciate the help and advice. I'm off to watch the US Women's Soccer!! GO USA!!